Monthly Archives: December 2013

Review by Judith CaldwellLast evening (Monday)at St. Patrick’s Church in Hamilton the Brott Music Festival presented Handel’s Messiah featuring the National Academy Orchestra of Canada; the Arcady Choir and soloists Leslie Ann Bradley– soprano; Pamela Mac Donald, alto; tenor Michael Colvin, and Gordon Bintner, baritone.
After reviewing several recent concerts of unfamiliar music it was very nice to be able to relax into the lovely sounds of Handel’s work, a Christmas perennial on the concert circuit even though it’s content makes it seem more suitable to Easter.

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Review by Michael Piscitelli New works are always a gamble, especially on opening night. You never know how an audience is going to react; what could go right, or horribly wrong. That’s a risk all live performances take, so that just adds to the thrill of going to see a show. Any new work is subject to re-writes and revisions, but there is potential in what is being written. Repetitive Strain Injury by Rob van Meenan is no different.

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Review by Judith Caldwell
Ensemble Made in Canada presented a concert; their sixth in six days, last night at the First Unitarian Church in Hamilton consisting of two duets and one quartet. The first duet featured Angela Park on piano and Sharon Wei on viola in a piece called “4 Visages” by Darius Milhaud, who said of himself ‘I am a Frenchman from Provence’, but he had also visited Brazil – and it showed. The four faces are those of different women – the Californian, the Wisconsonian, La Bruxelloise plus La Parisienne and Milhaud has written four distinct character pieces.

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Review by Tony Kilgannon For the record, I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas entertainment. Most of it is cheesy and manipulative, and we are exposed to it far too often. It seems like Christmas starts earlier every year, and lasts longer and longer. “Bah. Humbug “, as the man said. I make one exception to this rule, however; Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Or should I say more accurately, the movie of the book (nobody reads books) – the one with Alistair Sim, a masterpiece beloved by anyone with a modicum of taste. Photo courtesy of Adam CarterMore…

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Review by Danny Gaisin Yippee,- a play about young females of small stature. Being vertically challenged, this was the sole category of dates I sought out B.T. (Before Terry).
Nope, seems that someone named L. M. Alcott wrote a novel back in 1868 about four sisters during the Civil War that became a must-read for girlish teens. The heroine is Jo and she’s all spunk. I kept thinking of the famous Mary Tyler Moore show episode where Editor Lou Grant states “You’ve got spunk – I HATE spunk”!

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Friday evening at Grace Lutheran Church, the choir of Musikay presented an evening of Christmas inspired music. The ten singers opened a cappella with three of the Noels Anciens of Donald Patriquin who is a French Canadian composer currently living in Montreal where he used to teach music at McGill. He is best known for his folk music arrangements and the three chosen Noels reflect that. Venez mes enfants is very pretty with beautiful four part harmonies.